http://m.ebay.com/itm/190827147882?cmd=VIDESC
Forgot to post link

 

Just thought I should update this and let those of you still experiencing mystery creaks know that my problem was caused by the deterioration of the control arm bushing going into the wheel hub. The rubber was torn to pieces and the bushing was scraping.

Mercedes part # A 2043520027, Control Arm Bushing.
Price: €40.14, purchased through Chrysler as Mercedes wouldn't deal with the mechanic due to the car not being one of their own. Typical ridiculousness!

Mechanic also changed the rear anti-roll bar link while he was at it, and the annoying creak is now gone with my sanity slowly returning!
Thanks for all your comments and advice!

 

Congratulations on finding the cause, and many thanks in sharing the solution. As our cars get older more owners will experience this.

 

This is the very part I have just ordered my my xfire. Whilst changing the springs we noticed that one of these was in poor condition & after disturbing it my car developed a "clunking" noise so we assume it was this causing it. Hope so anyway!

 

If you have a spare minute or two you can try packing the bushing with bearing grease to see if the clunking goes away. We did that with mine and it lasted about 500 miles before the noise returned. My bushing was actually seized into the hub too so we had to heat the hub with a blowtorch to get it out. Just a little tip in case you guys experience the same problem. Let me know how it goes!

 

Thank you for the heads up, removing the old unit was my concern. I will let you know how we get on....

 

I had the same thing. Believe it or not, after miles and miles of sanity loss, I put two pieces of the soft velcro strip parts on my car on the left and right pad landing areas where my ridged back hatch thingys on each side rest on the bare paint on the car when you close the hatch, inside the trunk area. Problem solved!! It's worth a try?

I swore up and down it was something down in my suspension back there, and went through the same inspections. Never found anything. My car sounded like a damn creaky battleship going down the road and I never could replicate it exactly. Never heard it again after those velcro strips.

 

I found that this works for a while, but after a while the pressure of the pad starts to slide the pad downwards until the hatch stop is touching the paint again. I had better luck applying the pad to the ridged stop pad on the hatch, I think the pad stuck better and was held better by the ridges.

I did something similar to this on my '04 but my '05 has a clear pad that has only shifted a little amount. I think that it was applied at the factory but I cannot be certain of that.

 

I'm betting on the bushings. Mine creaks on occasion with 50k on the clock. Sounds Identical to the creaking front control arm bushings in my 02 Envoy. Its a well known issue with the Envoys. I tried just about every kind of spray and only once stopped the creak. I'm guessing the spray never gets deep enough into the bushing to stop the creak.

 

my son had same problem with Pontiac trans am turned out to be rear sway bar bushings ! Spraying them with wd40 made it worst !!!

 

You need to tighten the bolt in the rear control arm that goes through the plastic link that goes to to the stabilizer bar . I listened to that
noise for two years. Easy fix.

 

I take every opportunity that the tires are off to ****** the bushings with silicone spray. Never use WD40 - it's not good for rubber. So far it is reasonably quiet although I do hear some hatch noise in the SRT6. I probably have to replace the tape wrap on the door lock (the old fix from 2006).